The Martorell Center offers citizen science within the Ciutadella del Coneixement

The first public museum built in Catalonia officially reopens its doors. The Martorell d'Expositions Center in the Parc de la Ciutadella hosted the official opening ceremony, a launch with the authorities and representatives of what will be the future community of Ciutadella del Coneixement. The event took a long time until the main entrance was free of scaffolding, and was the culmination of the work that began in 2021 and showed its end when the center was opened. It opened its doors to visitors in December.

With its opening, the exhibition center leaves behind its previous state of disrepair It becomes the second facility open to the public inside the Ciutadella del Coneixement, After what The plant I did so in December, just a few steps from Martorell. The new center aims to contribute to enhancing the scientific aspect of the city of Ciutadella and bringing science closer to citizens, through exhibitions that will be hosted in the neoclassical building dating back more than a century.

The historic and unique building, now integrated into the Barcelona Museum of Natural Sciences network, contains two exhibition spaces and a multi-purpose hall, distributed in the two wings that start symmetrically from the central entrance. The center was opened in 1882 as the Martorell Museum, and in 1924 it was transformed into the Geology Museum, until it closed its doors in 2010. With this opening, The space begins its third life, as a center for scientific exhibitions on topics that have a significant impact on society. Such as the climate crisis and biodiversity.

The center was reopened to the public after more than a decade of inactivity, with the aim of cooperating with scientific and technological institutions in its vicinity.

Its past as a geology museum is still evident, Especially the wooden shelves and display cabinets that were previously used to display all kinds of metals, which refuse to leave the place. Most of them are empty and watching the scene go by, arranged on the balcony that serves as the upper floor, which is currently inaccessible to the general public. Part of the old furniture was used for the exhibition Nature or culture? Explores the boundaries between nature and culture in natural science museums.

Produced by the museum itself, this exhibition reviews the history of natural history museums and brings together modern museum resources with emblematic objects, such as The skeleton of an elephant that lived in the nearby Barcelona Zoo and, above all, models of extinct animals that were designed to inhabit Ciutadella, The iconic and popular mammoth has finally been brought back to life.

This completes the exhibition amazing. Museum Animals: Science, Technology and Art In cooperation with the Granada Science Park. The visitor comes face to face with lions while hunting, in an exhibition dominated by stuffed animals arranged in unexpected combinations, in an animated taxidermy process that leaves no one indifferent. Both temporary exhibitions will last between eight months and a year, and at the present time the exhibitions that will replace the two current exhibitions have not been closed.

6.2 million recovered

The comprehensive rehabilitation of the space began in 2021. With the support of Barcelona City Council and the General Government, the global restoration budget amounts to 6.2 million euros, in works that are not yet completed. It remains to repair and restore the building's facade elements, with work expected to begin next September It will not hinder the activity of the exhibition center. Works already carried out include opening access to the center via Paseo Picasso, with the aim of making it more accessible from the surrounding neighborhoods of Ciudadela. The restoration work of the main entrance inside the park was completed, and the accelerator was not operated until hours before this official inauguration.

The center was reopened to the public after more than a decade of inactivity with the aim of collaborating with scientific and technological institutions in the surrounding regions, as highlighted by the Minister of Culture, Natalia Garriga, at the event. To the extent that Representatives of the institutions that will make up the future Ciutadella del Coneixement sat in the front rows of the event.. Among them were the President of the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BEST), former Minister Andreu Mas Collel; Laia Nadal, President of the Universidade Pompeu Fabra (UPF); Director of the Biomedical Research Park in Barcelona, ​​Jordi Cami, and Director of CSIC in Catalonia, Luis Calvo, as well as the director of the Ciutadella del Coneixement project itself, Francesc Soberada.

The cost of transforming the city's oldest park in Ciutadella del Coneixement has a global budget of $290 million.

“The Martorell Center stands in favor of knowledge and science, and against science and climate change deniers,” declared Barcelona Mayor Jaume Colboni. The mayor noted that over the next few years, Progress will also be made in the rehabilitation of other emblematic buildings that were on the verge of abandonment in the “Central Park that is modest Ciutadella”, such as the Castell dels Tres Dragons and the Umbracle. “We are witnessing a certain cultural, scientific and economic renaissance in Barcelona,” Colboni emphasized. Future Hospital Clinic And repair Montjuïc FairgroundsIn addition to the Ciutadella del Coneixement project.

This is the transformation of the oldest park in the city into a center for science and knowledge Its global budget amounts to 290 million eurosIts spearhead will be the research complex that is being built Old Mercat del Vieques. I will have her too CSIC Biosciences BullAnd also with Central library in the future, which will be located next to Estació de França. A range of facilities that aspire to make Ciutadella a major center of knowledge, research and publishing for the Catalan capital.